In the U.K. the Race to Find Stray Dogs a Home

Last year, 37,000 dogs in the UK faced death in council pounds. Why is this happening and who is helping them?

hey are known as the eighth-day dogs – animals whose fate is about to be decided. After seven days in a local authority pound, a lucky stray dog might be taken in by a rehoming centre, from where he may be adopted by a kind new owner. The alternative, however, is far bleaker.

The latest results of a Dogs Trust annual survey found that 3,463 unclaimed strays – many of them healthy and happy – were put to sleep between April 2015 and March 2016.

More than 80,000 strays were collected by local council dog wardens in the year up to March 2016, according to the survey. Of those dogs – who may have escaped from gardens, run off when on a walk or even been stolen and then abandoned – just over half were reunited with their owners. But 37,283 went unclaimed.

Species can bounce back, even sometimes from stunningly small populations. But it has to be given a chance and it takes time. Lots of time. Something human beings, so focused on the short-term, have a hard time grasping.

We already know that conservation works. In fact it works really well. We just need a lot more of it – and we need faith in the long term instead of listening only to naysayers who say ‘we’re all screwed.’

​And what about my role in this?Journalists like myself are hardly blameless for the largely negative portrayal of conservation today. On the one hand, we know that bad news often gets more attention – i.e., eyeballs – than happy stories. And journalism today is measured by clicks.